India's growing craze for skin-whitening creams has been thrust into the spotlight after the Health Minister demanded that manufacturers should produce scientific evidence to back advertising claims.

Anbumani Ramadoss has asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to take action against manufacturers who cannot prove that their products work.

“This needs to stop. They cannot say 'within one week you will be white', and all this,” Mr Ramadoss was quoted as saying. “They have to have scientific evidence.” He said his ministry would pursue the matter “from all quarters”. There was no immediate response from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which has clashed with Mr Ramadoss over previous campaigns against smoking, alcohol and fast food. The proposal was welcomed by dermatologists and feminists who say that skin-whitening creams perpetuate racial, caste and gender stereotypes and are either ineffective or harmful.

Hindustan Lever, which makes Fair & Lovely — the country's first skin-whitening cream that was an immediate success when it was introduced in 1978 — also welcomed the proposal. It said: “We have carried out numerous national and international clinical studies on our Fair & Lovely fairness cream to prove the claims we make.”

Manufacturers do not have to provide evidence to back their claims because the creams are designated as cosmetic rather than pharmaceutical products.

A light complexion has long been equated with beauty, wealth and social status in India. Other cultural norms have slowly subsided since India opened its markets to the world in 1991, yet sociologists say that this one appears to have become even more entrenched. India spends about £140 million a year on skin-whitening products, in a market growing at 15-20 per cent annually, according to some estimates.

Advertisements for the products, especially on television, usually suggest that people with fairer skin stand a better chance of finding a good-looking spouse or high-flying job.

Manufacturers insist that they are simply responding to the realities of the Indian market, and empowering men and women by giving them greater confidence. Feminists, social activists and left-wing politicians say such advertisements reinforce stereotypes that are a hangover from the British colonial era, or earlier foreign invasions.

“From the health perspective, what the minister said is very welcome, although it should have happened much earlier,” Sudha Sundararaman, the general secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), told The Times. “We are against the whole concept of fairness and its racial overtones. Youngsters in the villages on the verge of malnutrition are now spending money on these creams, while women are forced into a situation where they feel they have to be fair to get a groom.”

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